Fallen
by Obsidian The Ghost Faced
Summary: AU Oneshot Crossover...Captain Rex considers his life after the end of the Clone Wars, and the loss of not only his clone brothers, but also the loss of another man he once called his brother... A Rex centric oneshot... THIS IS NOT SLASH! Please read and review!


**3 years before the Battle of Yavin IV**  
on Coruscant – the Imperial Capital -  
__Present day__

It never ceased to amaze him, how big this planet was. Or rather this  
planet-sized city called Coruscant. The pilot, momentarily distracted, quickly went  
back to his controls. He checked his com radio and tuned to the frequency for the  
Imperial air traffic control.

"Air control, this is Imperial shuttle Tyderium requesting  
clearance to land...repeat, Tyderium requesting clearance to land..." "This is air  
traffic control", the controller replied. "Please transmit your clearance code..."

The pilot punched in a sequence of buttons, and the code was transmitted. After a  
moment the controller responded, "Code recognized, you have clearance. You may  
start your landing approach..." "Acknowledged" the pilot replied, and the shuttle  
began it's descent through the atmosphere...

Rain was a rare occurrence on Coruscant, although it was almost never  
bad enough to cause any major concern. The drops could be heard falling on the  
shuttle's roof from inside the cabin. "Sounds like rain out there my lord..." The  
passengers were made up of a small six man contingent of stormtroopers, a  
trooper commander, and Darth Vader...the Emperor's second-in-command. Vader  
turned to face the trooper who commented on the weather. "It should be of no  
concern to you trooper. Come, we must make our way to the Emperor..." he said  
in a robotic sounding baritone. Making their way to the main hatch, it opened to  
the outside.

As they made their way out from the private landing pad, an Imperial command  
speeder was waiting to take Vader and company into the Senate District. A few  
minutes later, they arrived near the Jedi Temple and landed. Vader cast one short  
glance toward it before moving onward in the direction of the Imperial Palace. The  
cadre of stormtroopers had followed him except for one, the trooper commander.  
Something had caught his attention – it was a small monument in a rectangular shape.  
There was something inscribed on it: "Here lie our fallen...Warriors, soldiers, brothers..."

His helmet now off, the commander stared at the monument for a while. One of those  
words had meant something to him once..."Brothers"...Lost in his contemplation, he  
didn't even notice when Vader walked up next to him. "Ah, TK-7567..." the Sith Lord  
said to the trooper. "They were fine soldiers..." "Yes my lord...they were...", the  
commander replied quietly, still staring at the monument. "Very well then. Carry on  
trooper..." Vader said before he strode away. "As you wish...General..." the trooper  
said with venom in his voice.

_He doesn't even remember, or does he even care...They're  
nothing more than dead bodies to him...He doesn't even care to remember their names..._  
No other trooper could have called him General without being executed on the spot,  
except him. _He doesn't even remember my name..._

**21 years before the Battle of Yavin IV**  
on Coruscant after the battle of Sullust _-  
_19 years earlier__

The two men stood before the large chunk of twisted and scarred metal. It had been  
only a week after returning from Sullust. Jedi Knight Anakin Skywalker and clone captain  
Rex had managed to survive that brutal attack, thankfully none the worse for wear.

"It looks like a good piece Rex..." Anakin's flagship, the _Resolute_ had been destroyed in  
the firefight, but there were a few pieces of the hull that remained among the wreckage.  
Many clones had given their lives in that battle, and both Anakin and Rex felt that they  
needed to be honored in some way. A monument. "I agree General...I'm glad the  
Chancellor agreed to this..."

Both men had approached Chancellor Palpatine and gotten approval to build the  
monument. "Now the question is...what should we inscribe on it?" "It should be  
something meaningful..." Rex replied honestly. "Well, don't worry Rex, we'll come up with  
something..." Anakin said with a smile. "Sounds good to me sir. Sounds good to me..."

__Present day__

Rex would always remember that day. Serving alongside his fellow Republic soldiers gave  
him a sense of personal pride. No one and nothing could take that from him. But never in  
his darkest dreams did he expect to be betrayed. Betrayed by the Republic, no longer a  
symbol of peace and hope. Now it was an oppressive Empire, content to rule its citizens  
through fear and control. Chancellor Palpatine had played his part in corrupting what was  
left of the Republic, and twisting it into his own sick little project. But the worst betrayal of  
all...came at the hands of the man he considered a friend, Anakin Skywalker.

Once an honorable man, a peacekeeper, a Jedi...a hallmark in this universe. But now, since  
he had thrown in his lot with Palpatine, he became the very thing he swore to fight against  
...a Sith. In the past Rex would never have doubted the General's way of thinking, but this  
was just...wrong. _Why can't he see it? What is wrong with him? _Now there was only Darth  
Vader, a cold, unfeeling metallic suit...filled with rage and anger And Rex wasn't immune to  
the changes either. No longer a clone captain, but a stormtrooper commander, in the employ  
of the very thing he loathed with every fiber of his being. He cursed himself for being  
programmed to be so blasted loyal, even if it was to the Emperor.

But still, he swore to himself - and any of his brothers that were still alive - that somehow,  
he would escape from the Empire if it was the last thing he ever did. He replaced the helmet,  
and began making his way back toward Vader and the other stormtroopers. _There should be  
another name on that memorial...Anakin Skywalker...my brother..._As he walked, the last line of  
the faded memorial burned inside his mind..."Gone...but never forgotten..."


End file.
